Norwegian residents of Indian origin : national and transnational integration

Abstract

This report provides an overview of existing social science knowledge about Norwegian residents of Indian origin. This is relevant for policy makers in Europe and India, because the Norwegian case, in spite of its small size, is well documented. On this basis, the report theorizes how diasporas produce economic development. The report starts with a critical literature review, and proceeds with thematic chapters on history, demography, socio-economic integration, legal framework, and socio-cultural integration. For each topic, the report summarizes findings from all existing quantitative and qualitative research, showing the Indian diaspora to be a particularly successful non-Western minority in a Western host country. The report, therefore, gives some sense of why the Indian diaspora in Norway is interpreted as successful case of economic and cultural integration. But the report also addresses the level of international integration, in economic and cultural terms, between the areas of arrival and the areas of origin. Pushing beyond the limitations of methodological nationalism, the report conceptualizes diaspora communities as transnational social capital, which contribute to future economic development, within the historical context of geographically uneven development. The report discusses the conceptual implications regarding key issues like internal and external colonialism, intersectional discrimination, national cultural plurality, and remittances as development strategy. In sum, the report suggests an approach for future diaspora research. The phenomena of socio-economic and socio-cultural ﾓintegrationﾔ should be discussed not only within a national context, as an issue of inclusion within a host nation, but also transnationally, as an issue of ties or even fellowship between different nations.